


The Biting Cold

by wingedblue



Series: Percico Snuggles [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cold Weather, Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2013-11-11
Packaged: 2018-01-01 04:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1040279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingedblue/pseuds/wingedblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy and Nico stay at a hotel during a quest for Aphrodite. Nico gets cold and Percy is warm. (prev. Break This Spell)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Biting Cold

**Author's Note:**

> This is version 2.0 of this fic, since what started as a simple grammar edit turning into a full on rewrite, so it is now beta'd and better.

"Uh, Nico?"

  
"Mm?"

  
"Where are we?"

  
Nico glanced around. "No clue," he said lightly. Percy gripped his pen in his pocket, nervous.

  
"Don't you think we should probably figure it out?" Nico shrugged. 

  
The last rays of sun shone in the evening sky and a chill in the air bit at their noses, making Percy jumpy in anticipation of a cold night. Not only were they on a quest for Aphrodite of all people, but somehow they'd turned a corner and arrived in a whole new town. 

  
"Can you like, shadow travel us out of here?" Percy asked.

  
"No can do, sorry, but we were just going to settle down for the night anyway. Let's just stay there--" he pointed to a smallish motel on the side of the road. "--for now, figure out where we are, and leave in the morning."

  
"Hmm." Percy scruitinized the old building. It looked a bit like it had been there since ancient Greece had been at its height, but it didn't seem too sketchy. No monsters came barreling out trying to eat them (yet). "I guess so."

  
"How much money do we have left?"

  
"Uh, 'bout two hundred and twenty, I think." He pulled his wallet out of his pocket and opened it. "Wait... Shit." 

  
"What?"

  
"I hope fifty is enough for a room."

\----

"You're kidding me, right?" Nico snarled at the woman at the front desk.

  
"Nic--"

  
"Shush, Percy."

  
"I-I-I'm sorry sir, there's no double rooms available," she said, flustered. 

  
"Are there any more hotels near here?" he growled.

  
"Only one, but it costs twice as much as this one." Nico gripped the underside of the desk, fuming. Percy's eyes bugged out as he saw the wood starting to rot under his pale, olive toned fingers. Gross.

  
"Can we have a minute, please?" he said, interrupting Nico's next remark. Percy pried Nico's smaller hands off the now-crumbly edge and pulled him back out of the front door. "What the hell is your problem, dude? Chill out."

  
"Two guys sleeping in the same bed is weird." Nico's eyes flickered downward momentarily as the words left his lips. Percy looked taken aback. 

  
"Ok, first of all, no it's not. Second of all, I don't know why you automatically jumped to that conclusion, but you need to _chill out, Mr. Deathfingers,_ because third of all, I will totally 100% sleep on the floor."  
"Well--" Nico floundered for a comeback, then sighed an grudgingly gave in. "Ugh. Whatever. You can have the bed."

  
"Are you sure?"

  
"Yeah. Let's go get this stupid room." 

  
"Plus, free breakfast in the morning," Percy said, grinning encouragingly.   
"Yeah, whatever."

  
They went back inside and Percy handed over the $50. The lady handed him a key and they walked up the stairs to room 202.

  
They dropped their backpacks on the floor and Percy crouched down to dig through his. 

  
Nico slowly looked around the room, taking in the surroundings. 

  
"I don't like this room," he stated nervously.

  
"Nico, we went over this--"

  
"No, I mean this room. Someone died in here, a few years ago."

  
"How do you... Right, ok. Well that's... Disturbing," Percy said uneasily. 

  
"Suicide. Um... Parents disaproved of... Her girlfriend... I think? Don't worry, she won't hurt us. Probably."

 

"I thought ghosts liked you."

"Apparently this one doesn't."

 

"Well that's reassuring," Percy said sarcastically. "Dinner?"

  
"Hmm?" Percy held out a granola bar. "Thanks." Nico took it and ripped it open with his teeth. 

  
"So," Percy said after a few minutes.

  
"So?"

  
"Um... Whatcha thinkin' about?"

  
"No."

  
"I'm trying to make conversation," Percy huffed.

  
"So make conversation. Tell a story or something."

  
"About what?"

  
"I dunno."

  
"Wow, you must be the son of the conversation good, because this sure has been a lovely conversation."

  
"Mm."

  
"Why do you dislike me so much?" Nico stared at the floor intently. 

  
"It's not you specifically I don't like, I just don't like people." 

  
"You like Hazel. And Jason."

  
"There are exceptions to every rule. Plus, I wouldn't say Jason and I are friends, we're more... in an agreement."

  
"On what?"

 

"Things."

 

"I've seen you hug him."

 

"Actually, you've seen him hug me. It's late, I'm going to bed." Nico pulled the spare blanket off the end of the bed and laid it on the ground. 

  
"Do you want the pillow?"

  
"No." Percy sighed. He got up and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He felt the tempurature starting to drop as the chill nipped at his bare toes. After a moments thought, he stripped and rinsed off in the miniscule shower. 

  
Though he would deny it if someone asked him, he may have been slightly guilty of singing in the shower.

 

Concious of Nico in the other room, he hummed to himself as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. The cheap hotel came with not so excellent soap, but he used some anyway to scrub away the day's dirt. Afterwards, he used one of the two towels and dried off. 

  
"Bathroom's open if you want it," Percy said as he walked out in his pajama pants. Nico's eyes bugged out at him momentarily, but he slammed a wall in front of his eyes immediately.

  
"Thanks." He slipped past Percy and shut the door softly.

  
Percy flopped down on the twin sized bed. The blankets were thin and flimsy, but he'd slept on much, much worse. He heard running water as Nico brushed his teeth and the slip and slide of fabric over skin as he changed. 

  
He walked out in a pair of faded black sweat pants, well worn at the knees with a small hole on the left leg.   Percy glanced at the clock on the bedside table: 10:13.  
"What time should we get going in the morning?"

  
"Seven, I guess," Nico said. "Go to sleep."

  
"Its not very late," Percy remarked. "Maybe we should, like play truth or d--"

  
"Please love yourself and refrain from finishing that sentence. Plus, I have a feeling tomorrow will be a long day."

  
"Good night, Nico."

  
"Night," he muttered, before curling up on the carpet with his jacket as a pillow.

\----

It was midnight, and Percy was still awake. He knew Nico was too, but they definitely weren't talking. It was cold: cold enough that Percy was curled in a ball under the covers with gooosebumps waking him up every now and then. 

  
It had taken him a while to notice, but Nico was even colder. He could practically hear him shuddering with the cold. 

  
Finally, Percy gave in. "Um, Nico? You awake?"

  
"Mhm." The sound shook with his shiver.

  
"You sound cold."

  
"M'not."

  
"Do you want another blanket?" Percy said somewhat reluctantly. If he gave Nico one of his blankets, he would probably be cold himself.

  
"No."

  
Percy hesitated a minute. "Do you wanna come up here with me?" he said slowly.

 

"What? No!"

  
"C'mon, you're freezing. It won't be weird. I promise."

  
"No way," Nico gritted through his teeth. He defiantly wrapped the blanket tighter around his skinny frame. 

  
"Suit yourself, I guess. Feel free to come on over if you get too cold, ok? Bring your blanket up too."

  
"Mm."

\----

Percy was half awake at around 12:45 when he felt the bed dip and creak. He blinked and looked up sleepily.

  
"Too cold?"

  
"Y-yeah. And also, uh."

  
"What?"

  
"The room is still freaking me out."

  
"Its ok, the ghost won't hurt us. Probably."

  
"I know, it just..." Nico shuddered again, not from cold this time. 

  
Within the next few minutes, the tempurature seemed to drop even more, leaving both boys shivering as they tried to sleep, bodies back to back.

  
"Nico? Your kind of shaking the whole bed," Percy said after a little while.

 

"S-sorry, in case you haven't noticed, I've got very little in the insulation department."

 

"And what, I have a lot?" Percy teased tiredly.

 

"Ugh shut up you know what I mean. You're all... Yeah." A particularly hard shudder passed through Nico, and he unintentionally shrank back into Percy. Percy eeped as Nico's frigid toes brushed his ankle.

 

"Ok, thats it, you're practically hypothermic. I promise this isn't weird." 

  
Nico frowned to himself, wondering what Percy meant. 

  
A pair of firm but soft arms snaked around his waist and he stiffled a gasp. Percy's warm stomach pressed against his back, and he felt his knees curl up behind him. Shaggy hair that he knew was black tickled his ear and warm breath that smelled like the sea swirled around him, eveloping him in a heady perfume.

  
"Sorry, but you're gonna turn into a Nico-cicle, and I'm really cold too," Percy whispered. 

  
"It's fine," Nico breathed, eyes wide open, each nerve ending tingling like he'd been injected with adrenaillene. 

  
"I'm gonna sleep now," Percy said, and Nico could almost feel the smile in his slightly raspy voice. 

  
"'Night." 

  
Nico was wide awake for a long time, until he dropped off rather suddenly into a easy, deep sleep. 

When Nico was the first one to wake up, he almost crawled out of his skin because  _oh my gods he was in an actual bed with an actual shirtless Percy Jackson_. He could feel Percy's small puffs of breath on his hair, and in the morning silence, he could hear their heartbeats and the quiet creaking of the bedsprings. Maybe if he closed his eyes and concentrated real hard, he could make their heartbeats sound like one.

 

(They did.)

**Author's Note:**

> -Hayes (cosmicbuckys)
> 
> Thank you for reading and leaving me some love <3
> 
> I have started the sequal! Which actually has some plot! (Just a little.) Should be up soon, thank you to everyone who commented and begged me for more i love u


End file.
